Last Friday afternoon, I went to the taps to pull a pint of one of my favorite homebrewed IPAs, my TAFTBD IPA (Teach a Friend to Brew Day), and it spit the keg’s accumulated yeast into my my pint glass. Swearing under my breath, I realized that it was time to break out the brew sculpture and make another batch. This is the ale I’ve brewed the last three years in November to mark the AHA‘s Teach a Friend to Brew Day event. It is a hearty, west coast IPA, with a strong malt backbone, that holds up well to large quantities of Columbus, Centennial and Cascade hops. This IPA is always well received by hopheads and is a beautiful amber-copper color, with a wonderful nose of citrusy and piny aromas. This isn’t a particularly “hop crisis” friendly brew, using 10 ounces of hops, but I’ve planned well in my 2007 harvest hop purchasing – and a pint of this stuff is mothers milk for hopheads:) The only thing I’m changing up on the recipe from past brews is the use of White Labs Pacific Ale yeast, WLP0041. Normally I use Cal Ale yeast, WLP001, in TAFTBD IPA, but the Pacific Ale yeast brings a little more yeast character to the table. I’ve used it in my IPAs in the past with great results. I’m so glad White Labs has removed this yeast from their seasonal lineup and made it available year-round. Here’s the recipe:

I made the starter this afternoon when I got home from work, so it really won’t have as much time as I’d like to build up the cell counts. I’ll feed the starter on Saturday and then again on Sunday morning when I fire up the burners on the brew sculpture.

Sadly, this won’t be ready and in prime condition until at least June…